One in One Million
by AviarTheAssassin
Summary: Friendship, love, compassion... it doesn't matter to him. It never did. He was who he was: a man whose shadow was the only one who walked beside him. But... if someone found him... and loved him... would he change? Or would he abandon her... like he did everybody else?


Aviar slid open his eyelids. The pupils of his eyes rotated vertically and rather narrow. The eyes of a snake. He blinked in a volley of three, only resulting of his eyes turning from a mechanical orange to a turquoise-blue color. He blinked one final time, his irises returning to their normal brown color and pupils back to their human, circular shape. He slowly positioned his hands perpendicular to the ground, as if he were about to do a pushup.

The cloaked individual slowly lifted himself from the ground and into a sitting-up position. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a couple of times, attempting to clear his vision. When the cave entrance still remained blurry, he rolled his eyes at his own mistake. He reached his hand into a pocket on his waist and pulled out two small objects. Aviar opened his palm, and with his free hand, fitted the objects onto his eyes. No matter where he was or what circumstance he was in, he _always_ needed his contacts.

After the expected result of putting on his contacts came into play, he rose to his feet and turned his gaze toward the mouth of the cavern. The fire portal master tilted his head at what he saw. _I don't remember there being stalagmites on the entrance of the cave, _he thought. Aviar was never the one to remember small details like this. More likely than not, he would never notice. However, this was a detail _very_ difficult to miss.

Before he could contemplate the idea any further, he was interrupted by... in simple terms, _falling_,onto the ceiling. He groaned in pain as he sat up from landing on his back. He vigorously rubbed the back of his head to soothe the pain. He turned his head up to the ceiling, which he assumed was the ground. After witnessing what he saw, he forcefully facepalmed, ignoring the pain caused by it. "Since there was iron in the ceiling, my magnetic power must have drawn me to it," he mumbled to himself.

He got to his feet, once again. Aviar calmly walked out of the tiny cave he had slept in. It was clearly day, the sun shining brightly through the large clouds. The kind that many would say would form the shapes of animals. A gust blew through the area, swirling across the trees and rushing past the ground, replacing the warmed ground with a cold temperature, also resulting in Aviar's cape blowing to the side. A light smile appeared on his face. This was his absolute _favorite_ kind of weather.

After the gust ended, a constant flow of wind replaced it. He quickly frowned, remembering he was one the run from pretty much everyone. He pulled out an object from his back pocket. He smiled slightly at its shining beauty. It was a brilliant scarlet teardrop-shaped jewel with a framework of brilliantly cut white diamonds and a silver web connecting all of it together.He placed the jewel back into his pocket, and the smile disappeared. "I need to get out of here before they come," he mumbled again, studying the grass on the floor. He pulled back his right sleeve, revealing a black analog watch. "Two hours," he mumbled.

If he were a wolf, his ears would have propped up from the audible sound it picked up. It was coming from the thick and lush forest in front of him. He narrowed his eyes into a slant and instinctively drew one of swords from his waist and held it in front of him, prepared for an attacker. To his surprise, or rather dismay, since Aviar was rather combat-hungry, a flurry of stampeding animals came running out of the forest. His eyes widened and he gritted his teeth, and combat rolled out of the way, placing a hand on the ground and holding his sword arm back. Rather quickly, the stampede ended, followed by what seemed a hilariously frightened cross of a tiger and a lion. After the predatory animal went running along, a screaming girl with long, bronze colored hair.

She was panting, and her gritted teeth signaled that she was rather angry. Likely the predator is what caused it. She turned her head toward Aviar, who had now returned to a normal standing position and sliding was his sword back into its bracket.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," she quickly apologized, her face immediately softening and eyes changing color. "I didn't hurt you, right?" she followed.

"Oh, no. Don't worry, I wasn't hurt," he assured. "And... who are you again...?"

"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Annabelle," she answered with a smile and held out her hand, eyes changing color again.

"...Aviar..." he replied slowly and shook her hand gently.

"Not the talkative type, I see. So... What're you doing out here?" she asked while scratching the back of her head. "I hardly know anyone who would venture out this far,"

"To another province," he answered, but not giving the reason why.

"May I ask why is that?" she asked and crossed her arms. "You do know the nearest province is practically a few months from this location? I'll have to assume that doesn't bother you, but why in the world would you be traveling to an entirely different province? Judging by your outfit you probably killed someone."

"No, I didn't kill anyone, but I am being chased without knowing why," he answered at the same time lying. Annabelle simply raised an eyebrow at the statement. "And how do I know you're not lying?"

"You don't," he responded blandly. He turned to the side sharply, allowing his cape to whip to the side. "No one ever does." Aviar calmly walked forward, about to disappear into the woods until he heard her voice.

"I believe you."

Aviar whipped himself around, his cape flying around in every which way. A expression of somewhat genuine shock on his face. "If you really are being serious about being targeted without any explanation, I'll come with you. I'll help you escape to another province," she continued.

"You're... You're kidding, right?" he asked, his shock still present. The bronze haired girl jogged over to his location. "Nope. I love to help those in need," she answered somewhat cheerfully.


End file.
